


All's Fair in Love and Manhunt

by isyotm



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Cemetery, F/M, Gen, Hide and Seek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 16:13:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7808542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isyotm/pseuds/isyotm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At Scanlan's and Grog's insistence, the group decides to play manhunt in a cemetery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All's Fair in Love and Manhunt

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cinderfell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderfell/gifts).



> I wrote this for the Perc'ahlia Vacation fic swap that tumblr user curriebelle put together this past weekend. tumblr user cassiederolo ([cinderfell](http://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderfell/pseuds/cinderfell)) gave me three prompts and I decided to write this one ("a graveyard") as well.
> 
> For those of you unfamiliar with manhunt, it’s kind of like a grown-up version of hide and seek that you play at night. You can read more about it [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhunt_\(urban_game\)) (Vox Machina is playing the regressive version).

Vex jumps as she hears the skittering sound of something moving behind her and whirls around, coming face to face with the kind of ferocious giant rat that only seems to exist after nightfall. It stares straight at her, angry eyes glowing with malice, before skittering away again and disappearing behind a gravestone. At her back, Trinket whines.

“Yeah, me too, buddy,” she mutters.

In theory: Playing manhunt at midnight in the graveyard a couple of blocks away from their school is so _bad ass_ and when they brag about it at school they’re going to win all sorts of popularity points.

In practice: Vex is cold, scared, a little tired, and now that she thinks about it, who the _fuck_ are they even going to tell? They barely talk to anyone outside their little group.

“That’s the last time we listen to Scanlan and Grog, agreed?” she says to Trinket. He gives her a look.

She sighs, knowing full well that they’ll probably end up going along with the next batshit idea their friends pull out of their hats too.

“At least we’re not bored. Right?” she asks in an unconvincingly cheery tone.

She looks down, but her massive dog isn’t paying attention to her anymore. His head is turned away from her and when she looks up, she can make out a dark figure flitting between the tombstones. She can’t see much except for a general shape, tall and thin, but when the figure turns, a distant streetlight glints off of something on the figure’s face.

She grins. _Percy._

Trinket lets out a soft _boof_ next to her, his whole body leaning forward like he’s ready to give chase. He glances up at her, his tail wagging, pleading with her to be allowed to let loose. _Please, please, please, please, please—_

She crouches behind a tombstone. “Ready?”

_Please, please, please, please, please—_

“Go get him, buddy.” And she signals for him to run.

Trinket is off like a shot and she watches as the figure tries to dodge, but to no avail. She can’t quite tell what’s happening, but from here it looks like Trinket has Percy pinned and is currently covering his face with kisses. She stifles a laugh as she slowly circles around them.

When Percy looks up, she’s standing over him with her arms crossed and a smile on her face.

“I found you.”

“Actually, I think Trinket found me and you followed my protests to my location. Which, and don’t quote me on this, but I’m pretty sure is considered cheating.”

“He’s on my team, aren’t you, buddy?” Trinket pants happily. “And besides, all’s fair in love and manhunt.”

Trinket plants one more sloppy kiss on Percy’s face before coming back to sit at Vex’s side. She bends down to help him up, laughing as he grimaces and wipes his face off on his jacket sleeve.

“Thank you, Trinket, as always for this very wet, very disgusting sign of your affection.”

“Trinket’s kisses are a privilege,” Vex says snootily.

Percy raises an eyebrow at her, but the full effect is lost in the dark.

Trinket _boofs_ at him and licks Percy’s hand.

“Now we just have to find everyone else. That’s, what, seven people?”

“Five. Zahra texted a little while ago saying she and Kash were going home.”

“What? Why?” She pulls out her phone and sees that she does indeed have one text message waiting for her.

“Kash was having one of his…” He trails off, searching for the right word to describe the way Kash sometimes drifts away from them, not responding to anyone or anything except Zahra.

“Is he okay?”

“She said he’s fine, but that he just needs to be home right now.”

“Okay. Should we, I don’t know, stop?”

“If that’s what you’d like to do.”

She taps her thumb against her phone, debating. It seems like the right thing to do, but on the other hand, she knows that when Kash comes back to them he’ll be embarrassed and blame himself for “ruining” their night.

“I guess…I guess we’ll keep going,” she says finally.

Percy nods. “Alright.” He falls into step behind her as they skirt around another row of tombstones, crouched low so they don’t give themselves away.

She’s acutely aware of Percy at her back, his breathing as he picks his way through the dead leaves coating the ground, his footsteps so much louder than her own for all his care. It’s just the two of them here in the dark and she thinks again about abandoning their game, this time to sit with Percy in the dirt and just talk. She thinks about his hand in hers as she helped him up. She wouldn’t mind holding it again.

Trinket presses his nose into her shoulder. _Focus._ She shakes her head to clear it. Now’s not the time to be thinking about Percy’s hands. She does that enough as it is.

She can make out the faint shape of a footprint in the damp ground and she points it out excitedly to Percy. “Oh look! Whose do you think that is? It’s too small for Grog and too big for Pike. My brother maybe? Or Keyleth? I don’t know, does Scanlan wear a—” She places her own shoe next to it to compare, careful not to step on it— “what is that, a men’s 7?”

When she doesn’t get an answer, she turns back to see him standing a little further away than she expected. He’s frozen in place, eyes on the mausoleum that looms over them, a big black shadow blocking out the few stars that manage to fight through all the light pollution.

He’s staring at something on the wall, she realizes. A shape. A familiar shape. She walks closer, squinting until she can make out a tree, a sun…

“Oh Percy,” she says quietly. Trinket whines and nudges Percy’s hand with his head.

Percy doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t move.

Words pour out of her mouth like a flood, like maybe if she can find the right ones, put them together in the right order, she can make this better. “I’m so sorry, Percy, I had no idea, if I’d known, I would’ve _never_ —”

She feels something touch her hand and for a second she thinks it’s Trinket ( _or_ , her brain supplies, making a disgusted shiver run down her spine, _a rat_ ). But it’s just Percy’s hand again.

She takes it and squeezes as hard as she can, hoping to ground him.

A minute passes. She strokes the back of his hand with her thumb. Eventually, something in his eyes changes, lets her know that he’s back here with her and looking at what’s right in front of them once again. “Are we done for the night?” she asks. Her words are soft and kind and her tone is the one she uses when her brother’s heart has been freshly broken.

“No,” he says, voice rough. “No, I’m—I’m fine. Thank you.” He lets go of her hand and steps back.

Trinket whines again.

“Alright.” And she leads him away.

She walks back in the direction the footprint was pointing, glancing over her shoulder every so often to make sure that Percy is still there, that he’s okay, but all he does is press his hand against the side of the mausoleum before moving on.

 

* * *

 

Pike is the easiest to find. Despite her small size, she’s always made enough noise for three people and it’s not hard to follow the sound of her stomping through dead leaves. They corner her at the base of a giant tombstone in the shape of an angel, Vex to her left, Percy to her right, and Trinket stalking down the middle, trying his best to look intimidating.

She looks happy to see them, even though it means she technically lost. “You didn’t catch me first!”

Vex laughs. “Trinket saw Percy sneaking around like a grave robber and he wanted to stop the bad guy.”

“I believe what actually happened was you sicced him on me.”

“Only because I thought you were a bad guy. Like I said, you were behaving very suspiciously.”

Pike laughs and reaches up to loop her arm through Vex’s. “Do you want a hint or should I wait to tell you where Grog is?” she whispers.

Vex glances at the bulky figure rising head and shoulders above a tombstone three rows away. “I think I can guess,” she whispers back.

Grog’s a good sport about being found, especially when he learns that Vex found Percy before she found Pike. He high-fives his foster sister and lifts her up onto his shoulders, chanting, “Sneaky Pike! Sneaky Pike!”

Incidentally, this helps them find Keyleth, who somehow managed to climb up high enough in a tree that Pike is the only one who can see her.

“Hi, Keyleth.”

“Hi, Pike.”

“Can you see her at all?” Percy whispers into Vex’s ear.

Vex shakes her head. “Do you think she camouflaged herself? Like, _Hunger Games_ -style?”

“I want to say no and yet I can’t do that with complete confidence.”

“Does this count as catching you?” Pike asks.

“I think so. Good job.” They can hear the smile in her voice.

The tree creaks and they see first one boot, then the other, then Keyleth’s skirt, then finally the girl herself, her bright red hair like a beacon even in the dark, as she climbs carefully out of the tree.

Grog gives Keyleth a high five too. “Maybe I should’ve tried hiding up in a tree.”

They look at Grog’s bulk, at the slender tree that barely managed to hold Keyleth’s weight, back at Grog, and say nothing. Pike pats him on the shoulder. “Maybe next time.”

He nods.

“Who are we missing?” Keyleth asks.

“My brother and Scanlan.”

“Of course,” Keyleth says. “Should we split up?”

“Split the party!” Pike and Grog yell at the same time.

“Not to be the voice of reason—” Percy beings.

Grog groans.

“—but aren’t there a bunch of horror movies about why that’s a bad idea?”

“It’ll be _fine_ ,” Grog says. “We have enough people for two groups of three.”

“I—I don’t think we do, Grog,” Pike tells him gently.

“Yes we do,” Grog argues. He points at Trinket, who keeps dancing around them with excitement. “Trinket counts as a people.”

Vex rubs Trinket’s head. “Look at that, buddy, you’re a people.”

Trinket lets out a happy _yip_.

 

* * *

 

While Grog, Pike, and Keyleth scour the western half of the graveyard, Percy, Vex, and Trinket search the eastern half, far, far away from the shadow of the de Rolo family mausoleum.

For some reason, Percy keeps stopping behind her. She can hear it every time he pauses, waits, and then starts walking again. After the fourth time this happens, she turns around with an exasperated _“what?”_

“What?”

“You keep stopping. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” She gives him a look. “I mean it. I just…” He looks away.

She follows the path of his gaze, but when she doesn’t see anything, she steps into it instead so he’s forced to look at her again. “What is it?” she asks again in a normal voice.

He takes a step closer to her and licks his lips. Her next breath shudders on its way out as her eyes are drawn to his mouth.

His voice is raspy, barely above a whisper, as he says, “I—”

Trinket barks and races off, tearing through the small space between them with such force that Vex almost falls over. Only Percy’s steadying hand on her elbow keeps her from landing in the dirt.

“Damn it!” a familiar voice says. “Listen, stupid dog, you ruined a perfectly good moment. They were going to kiss.”

“Don’t call him stupid. Trinket’s a genius. Isn’t that right, buddy?” Vex asks, her face hot as she bends down to scratch Trinket behind his ear. She hopes neither of them can see the blush that must be spreading across her face.

As they walk back to meet up with Keyleth, Grog, and Pike, they argue about whether this counts as them finding Scanlan or Scanlan finding them.

 

* * *

 

And try as they might, they never manage to find Vax.

Instead, after another half hour of searching, Vex looks down at her phone and sighs.

Percy glances over at her. “What?”

“My brother is being insufferable, of course,” she says as she shows him the text she was reading:

_thought you were supposed to be good @ this stuff_

_hurry up i’m fmao_

_freezing my ass off_

_how in the fuck_

_did you transport yourself to another dimension_

_#gitgud_

“God, he’s the _worst_.”

“Would you like me to call it?” Percy offers.

“Please? You’re a star.”

Percy cups his hands around his mouth, but Grog beats him to it. “YOU WIN, YOU SLIPPERY FUCK. NOW GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE AND TELL US YOUR SECRETS.”

Percy blinks. Keyleth rubs her ear. Scanlan whoops.

“Not quite what I would’ve said, but it certainly gets the job done.”

Vax seems to melt out of the dark in front of them, appearing in the space between seconds, a smirk on his face. “Does this mean I win?”

“Best two out of three,” Vex replies immediately before she realizes that means she’s going to have to do this two more times (she refuses to imagine the possibility that her brother might win again).

Keyleth checks her phone and shows them the time: 2:58 AM. “Maybe we should start heading back?”

Scanlan yawns loudly. “Sounds good. I need my beauty sleep.” He turns towards where their cars are parked outside the gate.

“It certainly hasn’t done anything for you so far,” Vax says.

“Oi!” Scanlan shouts and starts to chase after him.

Vex moves to join the group but a gentle hand on her arm stops her. She turns back to see Percy and the streetlight behind her illuminates his rueful expression.

She opens her mouth to ask if everything’s okay, but he says, “I must admit, when I realized you found me first, I was hoping the night would go in a very different direction.”

She blinks, the full meaning of his words taking a second to sink in. And then hope, rushing through her so strong it almost makes it hard to breathe. _Please let that mean what I think it means._

“I meant to give you something earlier, but I didn’t get the chance.” He’s somehow simultaneously looking directly at her and looking at everything but her.

She gives him a teasing smile and manages to keep her voice steady when she says, “Well, you know I love presents. What is it?”

Percy takes a step closer to her, this time looking her directly in the eyes. He leans in slowly, telegraphing exactly what he’s going to do, like he’s waiting for her to pull away or say no.

She ends up breaching the last space between them, closing her eyes as she feels the soft press of his lips against hers and _god_ , it feels even better than she could’ve hoped. She feels him lean closer as she rocks her weight forward to her toes, desperate for more.

A tongue presses against the seal of her lips as a wolf whistle rings out across the empty street, followed by a laugh. She pulls away, her face flushed red once again, and waves at her (terrible) friends.

“Do you two need a room?” Scanlan asks and she can’t see his face, but she can hear the giant shit-eating grin in his voice. Someone—probably her brother—smacks him across the head.

“I believe we’ll catch up with you,” Percy says. He looks at her for confirmation and she nods.

Another wolf whistle and more laughter.

“Don’t stay out too late,” Pike calls.

“Okay, _mom_ ,” Vex replies and, when she sees that everyone’s backs are turned, she leans in to kiss Percy again.

**Author's Note:**

> Trinket is a [Boerboel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boerboel), which is a South African breed of mastiff (and if you’re not familiar with mastiffs, they are _really big dogs_ ). They’re not quite as tall as Great Danes, but they’re bulkier (and more bear-shaped) and a little more aggressive. My mom’s friend has one and when it sits down, it’s about the same height as her five year-old. 
> 
> And if you’ve never heard a dog _boof_ before, it sounds a little like [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5H3044RiYQ).


End file.
